ER Doctor Gives Rare Look Inside the NYC Hospital at the Center of the Pandemic

Dr. Colleen Smith, an emergency room doctor at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York risks her job in a plea for help, saying “we don’t have the tools that we need.” Scarily, this footage was filmed on March 24th and things have only gotten worse in New York City and across the United States.

This past Thursday (March 26) Elmhurst said it was transferring non-coronavirus patients to other hospitals so Elmhurst’s 545 beds could be dedicated just to COVID-19 cases. [source]

Elmhurst is located in one of the poorest and most diverse areas of the city, home to 20,000 recent immigrants from 112 different countries. Currently, the borough of Queens accounts for approximately one-third of the total cases in the city. [source]